1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a heating roller provided on an image forming apparatus adopting the electro-photographic system, a thermal fixing apparatus provided with the heating roller, and a method for producing a heating roller.
2. Description of the Related Art
A printer adopting the electro-photographic system is provided with a fixing apparatus configured to fix an image of toner (toner image) transferred from a photosensitive drum to a paper (paper sheet). The fixing apparatus is provided with a heating roller and a pressing roller which is brought into pressurized contact with the heating roller.
As an example of such a heating roller, there is proposed a heating roller provided with a hollow roller core bar (mandrel), an elastic layer arranged on a surface of the hollow roller core bar, and a fluororesin tube arranged on the elastic layer (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. H09-304964).
Further, the heating roller as described above is heated by a heater arranged inside the heating roller. When a paper onto which a toner image has been transferred passes between the heating roller and the pressing roller, this heating roller heats the toner image so as to fix the toner image to the paper.